


Counter Girl

by mmmdraco



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-30
Updated: 2012-09-30
Packaged: 2017-11-15 08:03:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/525021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmmdraco/pseuds/mmmdraco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The life and times of a counter girl at Touya Kouyou's go salon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Counter Girl

Harumi slid her apron on and tied it behind her and patted her hair softly to push it back into place. She held a fist up in front of her and closed her eyes and smiled. 

"Ichikawa-san?"

"Oh, yes! Hello." She bowed to the elderly woman whose place she was taking. "Pleased to meet you."

"Yes, yes. Just get over here and learn what to do. Here's the list of rates. Here's the cash register. When in doubt on the age for children, just let them have the lower rate. There aren't that many people under 18 who will come in here anyway, so Touya-pro encourages it when it _does_ happen. Answer the phone by saying 'Thank you for calling Murasakizui' and 'How may I help you?". Formal language always unless someone asks you to drop it. You _do_ know how to make tea, right?"

"Of course!" Harumi smiled nervously. "You do mean plain old sencha from a teapot, right?"

"Hn. We use high quality sencha, but the principle is the same. You don't want to use the hottest water, so pour the water into the cups first, put about two grams of tea per person into the teapot, add the water into the pot and steep for a minute or two, and serve. You saw the little kitchenette over there, right? Part of your job is serving the tea and washing the cups and teapot and making certain that there's hot water."

Harumi bowed her head. "Is there anything else I should know?"

The woman smiled as she picked up her coat and handbag. "Don't let any of them get fresh with you. A pretty young girl like you? These old men get ideas! Even with a woman like me!" She waved her hand. "Well, I'm off. Touya Kouyou's number is by the phone if something goes wrong."

"You're not staying?" Harumi bit her lip.

The old woman shook her head. "It's not a difficult job, sweetie. If you have a question about how something is done, just ask anyone. It's mostly regulars who come in. It's a go salon, not a restaurant!" 

"But-!" Harumi quirked her mouth off to one side. She could do this. She took her place at the front counter and glanced around the salon. There was one middle school student with thick hair and glasses and his uniform blazer still buttoned up all the way who was playing someone older and taller with blonde hair whose face she couldn't see from this angle. Two middle-aged men were sitting some distance away already drinking tea and playing a slow game. She could definitely do this.

At that moment, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a small boy rush through the door. He was marching, almost, with his hands wrapped around the straps of his backpack. "Little boy!" She waved her hand at him. "Are you lost?"

He turned to her, his black pageboy haircut swishing along his shoulders, and said, "No. I'm at Murasakizui."

"Oh. Well, then, you need to pay."

He smirked at her. "You're new here, aren't you? I play for free."

She walked out from behind the counter. "Yeah? Well, the children's fee is, uh, hold on. I need to check-"

"He's the owner's son," she heard a deep voice say and she looked up and saw the blonde man. He was a few years older than she was and dressed sharply, though his colors didn't quite match. He reached down and picked up the boy and balanced him on his hip and said to him softly, "Now, will you introduce yourself to the pretty lady?"

He rubbed his nose and turned to her and bowed his head solemnly, but not for very long. "My name is Touya Akira. Pleased to meet you." He held out the hand that had rubbed his nose, and she grudgingly took it.

"It's nice to meet you, too. My name is Ichikawa-san and I'll be working here from today on." She surreptitiously wiped her hand on her apron.

The blonde man laughed throatily. "I take it Minagawa-san decided to leave early on her last day, then?"

"She showed me around first. It doesn't seem too taxing." She took in the man's face and felt her chest tighten a little. She did like men with glasses and light hair. "Are you a regular around here?"

He twisted back and forth quickly with Akira on his hip. Akira replied by wrapping his arms around the man's neck and smiling widely, showing a gap from a missing tooth and letting his legs flail back and forth to kick . "I am. My name is Ogata Seiji. I'm one of Touya-pro's students. Ah, I suppose I can't say that so much anymore. I've been a pro for a while, but you never forget your sensei, right?"

Seiji put Akira back down on the ground and Harumi laughed a little. "No, I suppose not. Um, may I bring you some tea?"

He shook his head and reached down and took Akira's hand. "No, thank you. Akira-kun is going to come back here and play a game against Hiroyuki-kun."

Harumu nodded. "Well, let me know if you need anything, I suppose. I'll just go check on the other two men here."

Seiji glanced over at them. "Ah, Kitajima-san and Hirose-san. They don't like to be disturbed when they're playing, especially Kitajima-san. You might want to wait until you see them putting the stones away."

"Okay." Harumi watched him walk away and blushed as her eyes took in his broad shoulders and trim waist and... She turned and walked back to the counter and stood poised and ready to do, well, whatever needed to be done.

* * *

"Akira-kun! Are you on your winter break now?"

The small boy, his hair still cut in the same style, smiled up at her. "Yes. And, I made you something in class today."

She smiled and came around the counter while he dug into his packpack and pulled out a piece of paper with a crayon drawing on it. "See? It's you bringing me hot chocolate while I play go!"

Harumi took the drawing and smiled. For such a young kid, the drawing was quite good. Though she couldn't help but notice that more care had been put into rendering the go ban than in drawing her. Still, she'd only worked at the go salon for a little over two years, so the fact that Akira treated her like family was pleasant, though it did make her wonder about how much time he spent reaching across those intersecting lines to place glass stones. Those horrible, horrible glass stones that she hadn't realized in the beginning were her job to clean. 

Still, the job itself wasn't stressful and paid better than some of the things she'd tried after getting out of high school. With nothing that she wanted to do with her life, she'd forged ahead into the work world. Thankfully Uncle Kenji knew Touya Kouyou through... Honestly, she didn't even remember now. But she'd gotten the job with no fuss and she was _good_ at it.

So, maybe anyone could take money and make tea and wash go stones. _She_ looked cute while doing it. There were several of the younger regulars who started coming to the salon more often after seeing her the first time. It was enough to make a woman feel pretty good about herself.

"Ichikawa-san?" Harumi looked up and saw Seiji holding out a bill. 

"Ah, Ogata-san. Sorry. I must have been daydreaming. The air in here is so thick it's like a pillow for my brain." She took the money and made change for him. 

He took his change and put it in his wallet. "Really? I find it a little dry in here."

"I'll run a humidifer if you need me to," she said quickly.

Seiji smirked. "I wouldn't want your brain to float away on the clouds that would form."

"Of course not." She cleared her throat. "You're meeting with Hatanaka-san today? He's there in the back corner. I'll be over in a few minutes with tea."

"Tea, tea, tea. Don't you ever make anything else?"

Her heart seemed to leap into her throat. "I do what I'm told, Ogata-san."

He leaned on the counter for a moment. "And if I told you to go drinking with me tonight?"

"I'm sorry. I'm seeing my parents tonight. But maybe tomorrow?" She caught her bottom lip between her teeth and held her breath.

"I'm busy then," Seiji said as he pushed off he counter. "Ah, well, I should have known. No woman obeys like she says she will." He walked off toward his study partner or whatever it was he was meeting with Hatanaka-san for and she paused only briefly before heading over to prepare tea.

* * *

"No, Akira-kun. He hasn't been back today, either." 

She watched the little boy walk back toward the door, his steps muffled by the rug on the floor. It hit her that he wasn't so much a little boy anymore. He was in middle school and wearing a uniform and trying to conquer his dreams.

She remembered the other little boy who had come in to the salon... Oh, was it _that_ long ago? Still, with that hair, he'd been hard to forget. Akira was so good at go now, but that little boy had been better, or so she'd gathered from everyone's reactions.

Harumi was learning go, kind of, from working at Murasakizui. When there was nothing else to do, she turned to whatever _was_ there... which was go. She didn't quite have the brain to wrap about the concepts, but she was learning to enjoy her job for more than just the paycheck.

* * *

"Stop that!" She growled at the two boys squabbling over the board. "Both of you are being pests. If you insist on arguing, go do it outside."

Hikaru stood up first. "Fine. I'll be outside. But I'm taking my bag so that I can leave after proving to this guy that I made the better move." He turned on his heel and strode toward the door.

Akira bowed his head. "I'm terribly sorry about that, Ichikawa-san. I'm going to head after him. I'm sure I'll see you soon."

She shook her head for several long moments as Akira walked away, then noticed that both of the boys had left the stones scattered across the board. "Seriously?" she muttered as she reached down to start pushing the stones into two piles of opposing colors.

It was only a moment later that another hand joined her own. A larger and obviously _male_ hand. "Ah, Ogata-san. Thank you for the help."

"It's no problem. I'm waiting on someone anyway."

She took in his white suit and the silk tie. "A fancy date?"

He straightened his tie suddenly. "Ah, yes. I don't know what possessed me to ask her to meet me here except that she lives in the area and I'm already parked outside."

Swallowing hard, Harumi forced her hands to continue their task. "That's wonderful. I hope you have a great time."

He finished gathering the white stones and closed the go ke he'd been filling. "It's nearly time. I should probably go wait outside."

Harumi later mentally patted herself on the back for not looking up.

* * *

She opened the first envelope and pulled out a picture and a piece of paper and began to scrutinize them both. 

"Stalking a boyfriend?" 

Harumi looked up and frowned at Seiji. "No. Omiai. I just turned thirty and still no prospects on the horizon, so I finally gave in to my parents urging." He stared at her and she lifted a hand to cover her nose. "Do I have something on my face?"

Seiji coughed. "No. I'm just a little amazed."

"That I'm thirty?" She smoothed her hair down before letting her hand drop back down to her side. "I've worked here for almost a decade. Surely you must have realized."

"I..." He stuck his hands into his pockets. "I'm amazed that you're not married."

"Oh, well." She stacked the picture and piece of paper back on top of the short stack of envelopes. "I've barely dated since I started working here. Who was I going to meet while working here?"

"Me?"

Harumi looked up and her eyes were already welling up. "That's not funny."

He picked up the picture on the top of her stack and turned it upside down. "It wasn't meant to be."

"You've got some nerve, don't you?" She flipped the picture back over again and pulled the whole stack of envelopes away from him. "You've had almost ten years to ask me out."

Seiji sighed. "If it helps, I wanted to from that very first day I met you."

"So why didn't you?" She picked up a magazine she'd left there the previous week and opened it to a random page and let her eyes drift across the page without discerning any meaning from the printed characters.

"I thought I didn't stand a chance."

She flipped a page sharply. "You had _every_ chance." 

Harumi went to turn another page, but his large hand settled on the paper. "Do I still have one?"

"What happens if I say 'no'?"

Seiji chuckled. "Then I go back to paying for the privelege of your presence. And if you say 'yes', then I whisk you off to dinner."

She shook her head. "I have to clean the stones tonight."

"Then, if you say 'yes', I'll stay and help to clean the stones."

Picking up the picture again, she held it up next to Seiji's face and looked back and forth between the two deliberately. "Well, I suppose we could do that and you can take me out on one proper date that involves some type of planning. And we'll see where we go from there."

Seiji grasped her hand that held the picture and slowly pushed it downward. "That sounds nice."

* * *

Harumi smiled at the man who was sliding on an apron awkwardly. "There isn't much to know. Here's the rates. Here's the cash register. Answer the phone by saying 'Thank you for calling Murasakizui' and 'How may I help you?". Always use formal language unless someone asks you not to. I've left a list of the people who don't have to pay. And offer everyone tea, but make sure you do it before they get really into the game. Got it?"

Akira finished tying his apron. "Ichikawa-san, I've manned the counter before. You're only going to be gone on your honeymoon for a week, right? You've handled this for 11 years. I can handle it for a few days on and off with my mother."

With a laugh, she untied her own apron and slid it off carefully and folded it before putting it into a cubby under the counter. "Remember to close early so you can be at the wedding."

He swatted lightly at her arm with the back of his hand. "Go and become a beautiful bride for Ogata-san. That's all you need to focus on today."

With a wide smile, she picked up her jacket and her handbag and waved wildly at Akira as she headed to the door.


End file.
